The thread about the $200.00 wing nut has started me thinking about the various, usually vastly overpriced things we end up buying to feed our various obsessions. These are the kind of things you typically don't tell the significant other about or at least not how much you paid. A normal person would look at the item and say only an idiot would pay that much unless it is the exact one you need to complete your massive collection of used collectible pizza boxes! (or whatever your obsession happens to be.)
You don't have to tell the price, (as I don't even like to recall that aspect to myself) but the story would be good to hear. Besides this would be quite therapeutic I think.
I'll start.
As I started driving my 66 Pontiac I started to think how cool it would be to have cruise control for some of those long lonely highways. Plus I figured with the 396 it may save me some expensive premium fuel as well as a speeding ticket or two.
Also it was the last option the car needed to have pretty much every thing you could jam in a 66 Pontiac.
So I looked on ebay every once in a while (as I sure never found one anywhere else) and found the occasional rusty piece that would be more or less correct for the Electrocruise setup they had in 1966. (Last year for that.)
I assembled a piece at a time but it was a fairly sorry lot. One day I happened to be at home and found some guy had posted an complete NOS setup for a 65 Chevy small block. Close enough! The old heart pounded hard and after some wrestling with my sneaky weaselly tendencies I went to see the wife. Using my best wheedling tones I told her I had to have this for many practical reasons. As she was apparently happy with me at that time she said that I should do what I had to do.
So auction time and there was a flurry of last minute bidding of course but for pretty much all my fun money for the year I got it. She was actually looking over my shoulder at the time and encouraging me to go for it. Weird and unusual.
Anyway I detailed the installation of it in a different thread and I must say it works great! I figure I just need to drive about 150,000 miles on cruise so the gas savings will actually pay for it!
I'M A "SERIAL COMPLETEST", so I've made many, many purchases that I've paid a market value or a premium for, but in the end I have justified the purchase because I've never seen the item before or again. I look at the entertainment value of the chase, the purchase, and the research when it comes to certain items. No money can buy better entertainment.
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
OK, back on topic ... we (wife included, although she insists that what we have must be on display)(which I sort of agree with, but there are a few *ahem* exceptions that I cannot bear to part with that are stashed away) collect model trains, specifically N scale (smaller than usual, HO is most popular 1:87 scale, N is 1:160 scale, typical 80' passenger car is only 6" long) ... might have gotten a little carried away, we now have >900 train cars (almost all of them in sets, i.e. representative of complete trains)(mostly representing trains of the 30's-50's, the 'Golden Age' of rail travel) ...
Anyhow, back in 2003 we splurged on a vacation, on the (now-defunct) American Orient Express "Grand Trans-Canada Rail Journey" - 10 days from Vancouver to Montreal:
One of the best trips ever, lotsa great memories. wonderful sights, a great survey of your marvelous country, best meals anywhere with true gourmet fare including local specialties like Saskatoon Berry Jam and other delights
Anyhow,in 2002 there was an abbreviated model of the American Orient Express in N scale manufactured:
Not too long after our trip I found a set (not cheap, as it had been out of production for several years) and of course I had to have it and I bought it. Afterwards, I determined that there was also an add-on set of 2 more cars (different car names) that had been made, which would make a more pleasing longer train.
I have been searching for that add-on set for 14 years. Finally this year it popped up on evilBay, but bundled with the original set too. So I would have to buy another of the original set to get the add-on set.
So, of course, I did .
Happiness ensued (no I did not tell my wife about the duplication of the original set - some day I will sell it, eh?)
Dave
-- Edited by davelacourse on Sunday 28th of August 2016 04:24:40 PM
The Nilsson Schmillsson Quadraphonic reel to reel is still up ( i don t think I put the whole link up before) and is presently about $215 canadian with 4 days left to go. Its almost worth it to hear the drum solo on Jump Into the Fire out of four separate channels! Talk me out of it guys!
As for the train stuff I totally understand the obsession. It must have been a great trip. I wish it was still available as I have never really taken a long train trip.
In your model train collecting have you ever run across any Northern Alberta Railway (NAR) rolling stock. Hard to find I hear.
The Nilsson Schmillsson Quadraphonic reel to reel is still up ( i don t think I put the whole link up before) and is presently about $215 canadian with 4 days left to go. Its almost worth it to hear the drum solo on Jump Into the Fire out of four separate channels! Talk me out of it guys!
As for the train stuff I totally understand the obsession. It must have been a great trip. I wish it was still available as I have never really taken a long train trip.
In your model train collecting have you ever run across any Northern Alberta Railway (NAR) rolling stock. Hard to find I hear.
4-cornerJump Into The Firedrums - if you have the Quad setup (all I have is a pair of Original 70's Advents [replaced tweeters and refoamed woofers many times] that can still blister paint off the walls) I would say GO FOR IT!
I only have a few Canadian cars (and scale model moose and bears!) to remind me of all those that I saw on our trip
but there are some NAR pieces out there, not too hard to find:
and there is a museum that has real (full size hahaha) NAR stock:
You can still take long train trips, across Canada on VIA Rail (basically same route we took, but you would have to do it in stages if you did not want to just travel nonstop) and there are other specialty tours available south of your border, not as luxe as what AOE was but still can be quite nice ... pm me if you want some suggestions.
Dave
-- Edited by davelacourse on Sunday 28th of August 2016 07:08:09 PM
When planning on building a 70 Canadian Pontiac 4 speed car I splurged a bit on some parts which included a 4 speed console (that was missing some pieces but acquired later), a couple Muncie shifters (incomplete), the floor hump, a 4 speed crossmember, and finally a set of firewall heater delete plates.
I ended up doing a bench seat car, so the console was not required. I also purchased a rebuilt Hurst Competition Plus shifter, making the Muncie shifters spares, and didn't require the 4 speed crossmember.
I sold the console on ebay for probably what I had in it, sold the Muncie shifters on ebay for likely a loss, could hardly give the crossmember away, and re the heater delete plates, reproductions are available at a fraction of what I paid for my original set.
All the acquisitions seemed like a good idea at the time.
As a kid in 1973 living between 2 new 7-11 stores, I easily got hooked on Slurpee's. They came out with their Major League Baseball cups, and I started a collection. There were 80 cups in the series, 60 current stars and 20 Hall of Fame cups. I was the only kid in the neighborhood that got all 80 cups.
The cups remained at my mothers house, and upon her passing in the mid 90's we cleaned out the house. I took the collection home, and found I was missing 10 or so. I remembered the mix of 60 current stars, and 20 HOF cups, and determined all the missing cups were HOF. I later recalled we used the cups as pylons when racing our skateboards down the neighbor's driveway, and some went missing.
Upon joining ebay in the late 90's, I set out the complete the collection. One auction was for about 10 cups, of which I only needed two. I won the auction with a bid of $30, and had them sent my way.
I don't recall how much it cost me to acquire the missing 10 cups, but I'm sure with exchange and postage, it was over $100.
And yes, I still have my complete collection (still the only guy in the neighborhood with the complete collection), plus a number of spares I acquired.
I have the quad setup and I already have Nilsson Schmillson on quad 8 track but quad reel to reel at 7.5 inches per second was as good as consumer sound was going to get in the early 70's. Boy it is tempting as the whole quad version of Jump Into The fire sounds totally different. (sort of like you're in the middle of an echo drenched studio) The drum solo sort of ripples back and forth. it is the song that sold me on quadraphonic sound 40 years ago.
As for train trips I wlll take you up on the pm as my wife loves that kind of thing.
In 1980 I bought a 66 Nova SS project car without engine/trans. Pretty darn nice project car but nothing fancy, originally a 283/glide. Figured I'd do it up as a 283/glide again, a nice driver. A couple of friends and I took a 10 day trip to the US browsing wrecking yards and visiting guys along the way who advertised in Hemmings. Sure enough, a guy in Chicago had (for top dollar of course) an original 66 Nova 4 speed console. Tough to find in those days, and ALWAYS expensive. Yes, I HAD to buy it, came home, ripped out a perfectly good 283/glide and built up an expensive replica of an L79 327 Nova SS.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
My black 66 Grande Parisienne that I just sold recently to Edmonton area---
I really really REALLY wanted the factory gauges in that car, they are rare clusters to find. Found a cluster reasonable but the oil gauge in that cluster uses a unique pressure sending unit. Looked and looked for something reasonable but finally bit the bullet and coughed up somewhere in the neighbourhood of $200 for a simple oil sending unit. Nuts, but had to have it....
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Mint original rubber mat for my 70 Nova L78 bench stick car.... Still hurts when I sit down but I looked for 8?ish years.
Years Ago I bought an M-22 from Carl under heavy duress... May have overpaid a little but it took many years of beats and I may be able to get my money out of it if I didn't like it so much still.
Gary
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72 Nova SS - Minitubbed 70 Nova SS - #'s L-78 Bench Stick 68 Acadian SS clone - factory air 67 Chevelle rag - SS 427 clone
I suppose a months wages to get the seats upholstered in that above mentioned 66 Grande may qualify too. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth, close your eyes and pull the trigger.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
There are a set of 1978 Pepsi DC comics Superhero bottle caps released only in Argentina that I am hunting down at the moment ... $$$
I once paid a premium for a rare 1966 Batman bagatelle machine. It shipped from England, and ended up arriving smashed to pieces. I was more sad about such a rare item being totally destroyed, than all my months of hardship recouping my money.
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
So that's what those were called! We had a few when I was a kid and just called them marble games. I can see where some of them would be collectible all right.
-- Edited by 66 Grande guy on Monday 29th of August 2016 12:47:30 PM
1967 2dr Biscayne. L36, M40, G80, K05, F41. #'s. 1967 Impala convert. 283, glide. Parked in the garage since 74 and hasn't moved. Soon to be BB 4speed.
I have a weakness for late 1970's Pioneer component car stereo. Silver faces. I have a few components - enough for a basic system - but NO ONE has this stuff at garage sales or flea markets. The cars of the day were crushed with this stuff in them. You can find some pieces on eBay but it's definitely a waiting game for certain items. It makes finding good 8-tracks seem like child's play.
The GM sign is beautiful! So is the Pioneer stuff. I have a couple of pioneer quadraphonic receivers and boy were they well built (and still work great for that matter)
1956 Pontiac Pathfinder 2dr sedan, 496 - dyno'd 545 hp, stick shift, 4.11 posi - Hot Rod
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- if you have the Quad setup (all I have is a pair of Original 70's Advents [replaced tweeters and refoamed woofers many times] that can still blister paint off the walls) I would say GO FOR IT!
